Is there anyone else out there (like me) who knows France outside of Paris??!! If foreign visitors to the US only talked about New York City, the rest of us (people from the "uncivilized" rest of the country) would be really insulted, n'est-ce pas ???

I think Paris is wonderful......but please, get on the train and look around !!! Go where no American has gone before !!! This is all in good fun, of course....but I wish other of my country men and women knew what I know !! I'm not telling......you need to discover for yourselves.

Kathy

Quote:

Your mother was a hamster !! (Monty Python's "Search for the Holy Grail")

I attended college back in 19-dickety-three in Dijon, a lovely city where they literally put their mustard on anything that isn't dessert. Dessert they put creme de cassis on! It has many lovely attractions, a small version of the Arche de Triomphe, a lovely ducal palace, great food, and of course, the wine. It is a 3 hour train ride from Paris and well worth the trip.

Another beautiful area is the Cote D'Azur, where the food has a distinctly Medditerranean edge to it, and you can get specialities like Socca and Pan Bagnat. Calvin Trillan considers true Pan-Bagnat to be something only to be found in and around Nice and has to take a trip there every few years just to have one! That sort of regionalism is rampant there- I had to laugh in Nice when I was talking with one shopkeeper about the wood fired pizza there. I asked how it was and she said her brother from Napoli just laughed at it! I told her I was heading to the Amalfi Coast the next day and she begged me to bring her back a "vera pizza Napoletana"

The Loire river valley is so gorgeous, and if you like Leonardo Da Vinci, you can visit his last home and burial place, as well as see many of his inventions at Clos de Luce. The castles are amazing and the countryside stunning. I can also say that the North Atlantic coast is savagely beautiful, with Mont St Michel and the rugged coastline._________________"Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death!"
-Auntie Mame

My favourite non-Paris locale in France so far is Uzes, the First Duchy of France, a small hilltop city about an hour west of Avignon. A lovely place to be and in easy reach of Nimes, Arles, Avignon, Montpellier, Orange and a host of other fascinating locations._________________Vivant Linguae Mortuae!!

I've been coast to coast but Provence remains my favorite. Uze is in the Gard and is a lovely town with a huge Saturday market that overfkows the Place des Herbs.
Andre Gide's is from Uze. His father wrote:
O liitle town of Uze were you in Umbria, Parisians would flock to visit you."_________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

If I had to live anywhere in France for the rest of my life, that would be the place. There are so many reasons, that I won't even begin to start listing them.

Have to say that most of France is beautiful and we have enjoyed travelling around the country and sampling the different regions. Paris is interesting and has a lot to offer, but if it wasn't for the fact that we have to live here for my husbands work, we wouldn't necessarily live in this city. There was a while there that we were supposedly going to be living on the cote d'azure..... but the project didn't go ahead.....

Paris does tend to dominate peoples thoughts of France and it is understandable. one in five people in France lives in this small area!

Every country has the same problem with people visiting one (small) city and thinking it is the epitome of that country. In Australia people would go to Sydney and then go home telling everyone in their home country about it. It is hardly the spirit of Australia, but that is what happens when time and budget are limited and people see a small slice of a place._________________If you cannot feel your arteries hardening, eat more cheese. If you can, drink more red wine. Diet is just "die" with a "t" on the end. Exercise is walking into the kitchen.

/debbie, I stay a few days each year with friends in Bonnes(outside of Poitiers). Have you visited Chauveny and Angles sur anglin?_________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

KathyD,
I know what you mean. I am an American who for most of her life only heard about the wonders of Paris. But I was fortunate through circumstances to have visited just as wonderful places thought out France. I was able to visit Montpelier since my penpal of 6 years was working there and I had a wonderful time lazing on the beach. When I was living in Germany, one of the nurses I was working with sponsors a wine tasting trip every Veteran's Day (Armistice Day) weekend. The group would spend about three days in a wonderful town called Beaune. Fabulous wine, food, and my favorite, desserts. I also love going to Reims, I just love champagne and the cathedral is just breathetaking. My mother and I were also roaming around France this past spring, and stumbled upon the city of Nancy, where we found the most unbelievably beautiful square called Place Stanislas. I thought St. Mark's in Venice was nice. But my absolute favorite place to go in France, is the Normandy region. I am a member of the armed forces, and I just the love the history of the area. And the Normans are always so inviting to us in the military, so I am a little biased.

So yes, Kathy D. I have made it my mission to discover the other bright jewels that make up La France._________________Live as if to die tomorrow. Learn as if to live forever.
Mahatma Gandhi

bainst, Nancy is very famous for it's art Nouveau collection. The Brasserie Excelsior is very beautiful. Next time, try it _________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

bainst, Nancy is very famous for it's art Nouveau collection. The Brasserie Excelsior is very beautiful. Next time, try it _________________Sharing food with another human being is an intimate act that should not be indulged in lightly
..................................MFK Fisher

it is funny, how people think Paris is all there is in France...when we were preparing to move to Southern France, everyone asked us, so, when are you going to Paris? And once we got here, living in a house 3 km from a village of 3000 inhabitants, surrounded by vineyards and wheat fields, friends in the US said, well, you must take the métro everywhere!!

Having spent a great deal of time in Paris, the Alsace, the Loire Valley, Brittany, Provence and Langue d'Oc reagions of France, imagine my surprise to fall totally in love with Normandy. The countryside is stunning, the beaches put me in the mind of my lovely, rugged Northern California beaches, the seafood is exquisite, great sailing, brilliant cheeses, LOVELY FRIENDLY people...I could go on and on.

We did a home exchange with a couple in Granville - about 60 miles south of Cherbourg, on the coast. It is so unspoiled - even tho' it's a holiday destination for many Europeans. We went sailing out to the Iles de Chausey two times. We looooooved the street markets in Granville and most of the other towns we visited! We took day trips to Caen (Mémorial a la Liberation), Mont St. Michel, Cancale (oysters), Bayeux (tapestries), the D-Day beaches, Port en Bassin (scallops), Honfleur (lots of crumbly old charm). I did not eat Tripes a la mode de Caen (tripe with Calvados under a flour & water crust), but I did eat a lot of seafood and crepes - sweet & savory.

The customs officials just cracked up when we returned home - all we brought was FOOD! Cheeses (vacuum packed - so acceptable), jars of rilletes, onion and shallot confit, mustards, salts. They did say we wouldn't have been permitted to bring in any beef products

So yes, I agree that even though Paris is like an itch that must be scratched every so often, France is full of surprises and absolutely wonderful places to EAT, to visit and learn about.